Small unilamellar liposomes as a membrane model for cell inactivation by cold atmospheric plasma treatment

S Maheux (1, 2) , G Frache (1) , J S Thomann (1) , Franck Clement (3) , C Penny (1) , T. Belmonte (2) , D Duday (1)

1 LIST - Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology
2 IJL - Institut Jean Lamour
3 IPREM - Institut des sciences analytiques et de physico-chimie pour l'environnement et les materiaux

Cold atmospheric plasma is thought to be a promising tool for numerous biomedical applications due to its ability to generate a large diversity of reactive species in a controlled way. In some cases, it can also generate pulsed electric fields at the zone of treatment, which can induce processes such as electroporation in cell membranes. However, the interaction of these reactive species and the pulse electric field with cells in a physiological medium is very complex and still need a better understanding in order to be useful for future applications. A way to reach this goal is to work with model cell membranes such as liposomes, with the simplest physiological liquid and in a controlled atmosphere in order to limit the number of parallel reactions and processes. In this work, where this approach has been chosen, 1,2-Dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) small unilamellar vesicles (SUV) has been synthesized in phosphate buffered aqueous solution and this solution has been treated by a nanosecond pulsed plasma jet under a pure nitrogen atmosphere. Only the composition of the plasma gas has been changed in order to generate different cocktails of reactive species. After the quantification of the main plasma reactive species in the PBS solution, structural, surface charge state, and chemical modifications generated on the plasma treated liposomes, due to the interaction with the plasma reactive species, has been carefully characterized. These results allow going further in the understanding of the effect of plasma reactive species on model cell membranes in physiological liquids. Permeation through the liposomal membrane and reaction of plasma reactive species with molecules encapsulated inside the liposomes has also been evaluated. New processes of degradation are finally presented and discussed, which come from the specific conditions of plasma treatment under pure nitrogen atmosphere.

Mots clés: Plasma jets; Solutions; Hypochlorous acids; Fighter aircraft; Electric fields; Hypochlorous acid; high resolution mass spectrometry; Atmospheric chemistry; Cells; carboxyfluorescein; Electric discharges; Cytology; Chemical modification; liposome degradation; Liposomes; Mass spectrometry; Medical applications; Membranes; microplasma jet; Micro-plasma jet; nanosecond pulsed discharge; Nitrite ion; nitrite ions; Nitrogen; Nitrogen plasma; Physiological models; Physiology; Plasma applications

Domaines: Plasmas; Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

S Maheux, G Frache, J S Thomann, Franck Clement, C Penny, et al.. Small unilamellar liposomes as a membrane model for cell inactivation by cold atmospheric plasma treatment. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2016, 49 (34), pp.344001. ⟨10.1088/0022-3727/49/34/344001⟩. ⟨hal-02113590⟩